Published on May 14, 2026

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NYAC

Perfect

• Post author By tbrg
• Post date May 14, 2026

Perfect

There was a café on the beachside. He was fixated on the water.

“Ohh? You’ve never met anymore more beautiful?”

He hesitated, “Nope.”

“That hitch says otherwise.”

“Okay there was one girl…”

“Talking about another girl on a date? How cruel.”

“C’mon Bella, you brought it up!”

“I’m kidding dummy!”

She took a sip.

“Why orange juice?”

“Yeah, anything wrong with it? Or did that ‘one girl’ do something more hardcore?”

Her words irritated him.

“Ignoring the fruitphobic tendencies…tell me ‘bout her.”

“About who?”

“About that ‘one girl’”

What would he even tell her? No. The better question was how much would she even understand?

“I met her on a beach just like this one…” And she was beautiful.Her dark hair had flown in the wind, her green eyes called to him in a sweet lullaby.

That girl, oh she was perfect.

He turned his head to see Bella but she wasn’t there anymore there was someone sitting on it though, swinging her legs. He had look down to see her pout. She looked exactly like Bella.

“You promised coffee!”

“Coffee? You’re just a kid.”

“C’monnnn!”

“Absolutely not.”

She winced, then her face lit up, probably with an idea he would hate, “I’ll tell mama..”

“What?”

“I’ll tell her!”

“You’ll tell what to your mama?”

“That you were talking about ‘that girl’ again.”

“WH-! Ugh! Fine!”

Some battles are simply unsurmountable. He plopped the cup on the table.

“This is low caffeine!”

“Deal with it.”

“Ughhh! Fine..It’s still coffee I guess. Thanks.”She took fast, hasty sips, “You were saying?”

“What now?”

“about that girl…”

“That girl…”

He had met her at the most tumultuous time of his life. And she was here. On a beach like this one, carefree and enjoying her days.

Their eyes had met briefly and it was electric. The way she smiled, her hair that threatened to cover her beautiful face.

She really was perfect.

Then with a click of a glass his attention was once again diverted. It was annoying, obviously. He had to scold that little girl or- “You were saying?”

A young woman sat in front of him. She was swirling a glass of wine. “Geez, what are you teaching her now?” A familiar voice called out to him, “Talking about nonsense again, you never grow out of it.”

It was Bella. Her face was different though, she looked…older. He reached for the mug on the table to divert himself, but stopped at the sight. There was a ring on his finger, and his hands…

They were wrinkled. His entire face was.“And look here when I’m talking to you! Won’t you even apologize?”

He finally met her eyes, “Sorry ‘bout that.” Were his only words.

Silence.

The haughtiness evaporated.

A calamity took hold of her. There was a long pause followed by a choke, then the tears didn’t stop.

“You finally paid attention to me… ”

He froze.

He wasn’t prepared for this. The second he talked to her, and this happens. He didn’t plan on making sweet talk; besides, the young woman was already embracing Bella.

He stood up and rushed out of there. They would handle it themselves.

He ran to the beach. The winds blowing like it had on that day. The sun kissing his face like it had lit hers.Yet, there was no one there.

All except a single woman. She had dark hair that flowed in the wind and green eyes that still called out to him like a lullaby.

She turned to him, flaunting her summer dress and sticking her tongue out.

She had not a single imperfection on her face. Not a single wrinkle.

She looked exactly the same as she had on that day.

She was perfect.

But that was the problem, wasn’t it?

She was still perfect.

Too perfect.

For she wasn’t real in the first place.

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Wonder

• Post author By tbrg
• Post date May 14, 2026

Wonder

I wonder every day, if I can time travel? Go to space? What not?

Turns out I am not the only one. Are you out there too? Thinking about the same?

Wondering?

You know the feeling, the instinct, that something is happening…Going to happen?

I had that too…sadly, on a good sunny Sunday morning.

The whole day just went around by me, being worried, scared, precautioned, observative and all the other intense words I have learnt in my English class.

The night time is the worst when you have such a feeling. Anyways, I get ready to sleep after praying to God (a little extra that day) and its 2:12 am and I feel someone is staring at me. I open my eyes and something weird is there. My heart, my brain everything stopped working for a second with idiocy. I screamed so loud. The creature turns on the light and it’s my sister. Wow!

After a lot of fighting with each other I finally got ready to sleep again but the weird feeling just doesn’t leave me. I felt like someone was staring at me again and I open my eyes and again someone’s there. I assume it’s my sister again, throw a pillow at her and turn the other ways and see my sister in the bed next to mine.

So, who was that??

I was really sleepy to think about who or what it was so, I slept…

But I regret it now because I got a dream, just that, not exactly of me…It was like watching through the eyes of someone else… I don’t know whose eyes was I seeing through because I felt short (really short), confused and weird.

I started getting the dreams every day. The place is like earth but weird and better.

Greener, I guess.

I will be very honest. I liked the dreams. Sometimes I’m sleeping on grass and seeing the starry night, sometimes I’m in a field full of different flowers, sometimes I’m having fruits…I don’t know…The world just felt peaceful and better when I was asleep, dreaming.

I started wondering about it every day. One night though, the dream was scary. It was all dark. I felt scared and then I get hit by a pillow thrown by me.

I did not sleep that night. That’s kind of obvious.

It’s been a month and I didn’t forget about it, and, I did not have weird dreams, nothing.

Then on a sunny day, I came across a book in my library on loopholes in the galaxywhere people can travel from different time periods and places. There was also a paper with the steps to make a loophole machine written. I obviously wanted to make it and come to know how did I see myself in the dream? What happened that night?

It took me an entire month to make it and thankfully my father helped me with it although he really did not believe it. It didn’t work as he said but I really wanted to time travel!! I checked the machine again and again…tried to do random stuffs and I don’t know.

The next day, somehow the machines lights were on. It was working!! I got ready and I went to see what happened that night, whether it was actually me seeing me. Turned out, it was the time travelling me who was hit by the pillow. The dreams, still a mystery.

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𝖲𝗉𝖾𝗅𝗅𝖻𝗈𝗎𝗇𝖽

• Post author By tbrg
• Post date May 14, 2026

Spellbound

I am out with lanterns, looking for myself.

– Emily Dickinson

It was a warm autumn evening in Edinburgh, one that reminded Ruelle of the older days.

She wrapped her scarf tight and left her cabin. A gust of wind whirled in her face, making her shudder. The book in her hands was as heavy as lead. She clutched it firmly, her fingers digging into the leather binds. Ruelle bit her lip, her mind running, her pulse racing. She shook her head, staring at the trail ahead of her in a feeble attempt to clear her mind.

A few minutes later she was surrounded by what felt like a thousand trees, leaves fluttering and swaying before falling leisurely towards the ground, reminding her of the serene sentiment of snow. Rue inhaled the sweet, crisp scent of autumn air and admired the reds and oranges of mid-November around her. She tucked her hair behind her ears, smiling when a maple leaf pitched itself on her head.

Her thoughts faded out to whispers as she stood in front of a magnificent library, eyes widening at its glory. A large, woodlike structure with two tall towers on opposite ends, long strings of pale yellow lights hung loosely around the pillars. Its embrace looked mystic and melodious. A slight fog clouding the windows blurred the colours of the books indoors.

Rue took a tentative step towards the cottage as the vast sea of leaves crunched under her boots. She gazed at her reflection in the door, at the piercing green eyes staring back at her. They resembled the fresh green grass of a meadow. Not unlike the first breath of spring after a harsh, bitter winter.

She shook her head and creaked open the wooden door.

Ruelle held her breath, the sweet, aromatic smell of sandalwood and old books making her head spin. A small chandelier hung low from the ceiling and delicate, enthralling lamps lit the rest of the bookstore, luminous and dreamlike. Intricately carved bookshelves stood in long rows across the room, alluring, like a spell.

The tainted sound of leaves whistling and wind blowing harshly made way to comfortable silence as Rue shut the door behind her. Faint traces of ancient dust in the air landed on her lips. Her breath caught in her throat and she trembled slightly. Was it from the wind? She hesitantly grabbed a book off one of the shelves, an emerald green hardcover, fragments lined with gold. A fading page slipped out of the binding. Ruelle blew on the book, coughing when a layer of dust soared up in the air. She opened it to a random page and a line of text caught her eye.

“‘How can you not the language of poetry.’” know the arts if you are them itself?’ he exclaimed.

‘Our souls, you see, speak’

Ruelle read the words over and over. Until she felt a dim spark in her heart. Her eyes gleamed in the moonlight and she gave a slight smile. Rue turned the book to the first page and began reading. She read until her breathing slowed. Until her heart stopped pacing.

Until she couldn’t remember time and memory and everything except the enchanting stillness of words and pages and the minutes fading away as quickly as they’d come by.

Outdoors, dawn swept over the burgh like a warm blanket coaxing a young child to sleep.

The sky sparkling with a million stars, winking down at passers by. And as Ruelle sat on her chair, knees close to her chest, gazing into the night sky, she realised she had found home in a place she never expected. She was spellbound by literary captivation.

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I hold human hands

• Post author By tbrg
• Post date May 14, 2026

I hold human hands

After death, there are those brave ones, determined ones, excited ones, and even fearful and reluctant ones who decide to go on. Whereas the cowardly ones, scared of change, ones who have always feared the unknown, decide that they would rather settle for the loose, translucent life that is but a mockery of the old one, and remain here as ghosts. I too, was offered this clear choice after my death.

I did not lack the spirit which is required to go on. It infuriates me every day to be surrounded by these fellow creatures of mine who have nothing worthwhile in them except that of simpering small talk, but I would not give up my situation for the world.

It has given me time to observe. Sometimes it scares me that for all of eternity I shall be trapped here, watching, never experiencing any change, for the only change that was offered me, I refused.

Sometimes I wonder what they would all discover there, when they went on. Peace? Oblivion? Punishment? Must be well-organised with a surplus of resources to cope with an endless supply of people pouring in- newborns who barely breathed in their first little breaths before they arrived with their fresh little souls; and other, older worldly beings, their souls all knarly and twisted like steely old trees. I myself am trapped in a little corridor between true life and true death, weaker in spirit than I used to be, but at least I can see everything I always wished to see. I hover around the mortals, and I watch their exchanges, with interest, with disbelief and sometimes with teary eyes because I do not believe I extracted as much as I possibly could from my life.

Something that surprises me is how easily people give their hands to each other. They give it in fondness, they cling to each other, they grip with support, they hold on, they ache when they let go.

Out of sheer loneliness, what I felt then and what I feel now, I sometimes fleetingly slip my hand into another lonesome looking stranger’s hand on the street. Would they feel a small comfort? I hope so.

But what I do the most is watch over faces that remind me of his.

He died a long time ago, and so soon after my own death that while I was still getting my bearings in this place, he died and went on. I sought for him on Earth in vain for several years, until I realised such desolation of his presence could only mean he must too have died. His ardour and his spirit made it natural he would never be afraid of what came ahead, so he but passed through the ghost realm, and I was wrenched over with grief that I would never see him again. Now it has been thousands of years,

and I only just a faint flicker of his face.

Sometimes I see glimpses of his expression in another human, and I shadow the face for months. It is silly, I know. I was always severely scolded during my life for devoting myself to people.

“You cannot fall in love with someone because you believe they have the capacity to understand you! Have they even yet attempted? Do they even care? They will sacrifice all to develop the capability to understand the one that they love! And you are not that one!”

***

The chains that link across my waist,

Make as if to loosen,

As fearful, horrible Cousin of Hope,

Wound in insanity, smile of terror, Misplaced HopeWaves his greetings to me at the prow of his ship ‘Fantasy’

Sailing lazily across the bay.

And though I dream again

And long as I longed before,

The jingle of the silver key at his belt,

Echoes an ominous metronome on shore.

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Birthday of Combined Dreams

• Post author By tbrg
• Post date May 14, 2026

Birthday of Combined Dreams

Alora woke up early in the morning. Although she kept her eyes shut tight. She told herself firmly. Dream of a weird colony full of different creatures.

“It was a dream,”

There was an abruptly loud tapping noise.

“Happy birthday!” bawled her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Clinton.

Alora quickly got ready and had her breakfast.

A weirdly dressed old lady comes to give her a necklace with different stones each birthday and every time brings a new kid with her. This year she got a shiny purple stone.

Later, Alora and her parents went shopping.

Mr. and Mrs. Clinton had already sat in the car. When Alora opened the door, she quickly bangs the door as if she had seen something very bizarre. Thinking it’s just a figment of her imagination, she quickly opened the door and tried sitting in the car when she got transported into a new world.

Alora noticed that the door she entered from had disappeared.

In hope of escaping, she started searching around when she saw a group of people. It was the old lady with kids.

The old lady with those kids took Alora with them to their home. Alora’s mind started shaking off when she saw their long pointy ears, sparkling fingers and their changing faces.

After handing over the hot chocolate to Alora, the old lady and the kids sat down in front of her.

“You… you’re a magical elf”

, said the old lady.

“What!” She exclaimed.

“How is that even possible?”

“Yes!, you’re an elf, Santa’s beloved helper”, said a boy. Today, you’re going to be getting some magical powers related to nature, animals, controls and more but it is very rare that someone does not get a magical power.

“Don’t worry, even I’m going to be getting a super power”, said a tiny little girl named Melina, but what if I don’t get a super power.

Let’s go!, it’s just 10 mins to 12pm, hurry up, screamed the old lady.For getting their powers, there was a ritual being performed. First, dip their hands into 4 types of potions and decide which one to go for. Second, wear a bangle and dip their hands into potion reciting a prayer. Third, one old elf comes and makes three cuts on your wrist through the bangle but if your skin does not bleed and the blood becomes ice then you’re a magical elf.

Fourth, the last one, keep your hand on top of fire and your hand is ready to shine.

Everyone was sad to hear that Melina did not get any power. After hours of seeing others doing the ritual, it was finally Alora’s turn. Her hands were shivering as she stepped ahead. The ritual began. Alora’s hand started shining blue, then green and finally yellow. Alora’s power was elemental control. Everyone was shocked, after 56 years someone had got the rarest power.

“Grandma you’re correct”, said Melina. Alora is a power princess.

“Yes, dear!” Said the old lady. Alora’s going to get the best training these 2 years.

With great power comes great responsibility , thought Alora. The only thing Alora could think of was to escape. It seemed that her whole world was turned upside down.

While searching around she collected stones with different symbols and solved the puzzle, she escaped but was unknown to the future.

Alora was shocked to see that the time had stopped until she came into the car.

While Alora thought it was a dream, she forgot that when she touched the small plant it rapidly

started growing.